Growth of equiaxed dendritic crystals settling in an undercooled melt, Part 1: Tip kinetics

Experiments are conducted to measure the dendrite tip growth velocities of equiaxed crystals of the transparent model alloy succinonitrile–acetone that are settling in an undercooled melt. The tip velocities are measured as a function of the crystal settling speed and the Eulerian angle between the dendrite arms and the flow direction relative to the crystal. The ratio of the settling speed (or flow velocity) to the tip growth velocity ranges from 62 to 572. The ratio of the measured tip velocity to that predicted from a standard diffusion theory for free dendritic growth ranges from almost zero for dendrite tips growing in the wake of the crystal, about unity for dendrite tips with an orientation close to normal to the flow direction, and up to two for dendrite tips growing into the flow. Despite the relatively strong flow relative to the crystal, the average tip growth velocity of the six primary dendrite arms of an equiaxed crystal is found to be in excellent agreement with the standard diffusion theory result. The individual tip velocities are correlated using a boundary layer model of free dendritic growth in the presence of melt flow that is modified to account for the flow angle dependence. Using the same dendrite tip selection parameter, σ*, as established previously under purely diffusive conditions (0.02), good agreement is achieved between the measured and predicted tip velocities. The model is also found to predict well the variations in the tip velocity that occur during settling due to crystal rotation and settling speed changes.